Blog blocked?

Hmmmm, we have been in China two days and we still haven't been able to access the blog.  Is it too early to conclude that access to blogspot is blocked here? 

 

It's mighty annoying not being able to access the blog.  It means that that we can't update the site or properly edit posts, although we can still post by emailing the posts to the blogs website email address.  If I wasn't so technologically challenged I'm sure I could figure out a way to unblock the site but as it is, well...there's no chance.

 

Not surprisingly, Picasa is also acting up and we can't access it most of the time.  Basically, what all this means is that while we can still put photos on Picasa, I can't create a photo album link for our China pictures on the blog and we aren't able to caption the photos in Picasa to tell you where they were taken.  However, if you follow this link you should still be able to see the photos we take while we're here - http://picasaweb.google.com/nr.field/China.  Somebody please let us know if this link doesn't work.

 

(We also haven't been able to caption the photos at the end of our Taiwan blog - which are basically the pictures of me stealing ayi's pineapple cake recipe, Paul and Charles' trip to Kenting, some pics of the storm damage outside the house in Kaohsiung and a pic of us saying goodbye to Paul's mum and dad at the airport).

 

Another quick point about the time - China is two hours behind AEST.  

 

It was such a long haul getting to China.  Firstly, because a typhoon hit Taiwan a few days before we were scheduled to fly out, we were stuck in Kaohsiung when we had intented to drive back to Ilan to pick up a few things prior to our flight.  There were a few days where we basically did nothing as it was too windy and rainy and most of the shopping centres were shut and the MRT was down.  We ended up having to drive back to Ilan on Saturday afternoon/evening (we flew out on Sunday afternoon).  I felt sorry for Paul's dad as Saturday was father's day in Taiwan and he basically spent all day driving!  Paul didn't even get to take him out for a nice dinner like he planned.

 

On Sunday morning we basically finished packing and then we had to drive to Taipei to catch the plane.  It took about 2 hours to get to Taipei and we were just in time checking in and going through customs as it was final call for boarding when we finally got to the boarding gate.  The flight to KL left Taipei at 4.00pm and was about 4 hours.  We booked two flights to get to China - one from Taipei to KL and then one from KL to Tianjin in China.  The total cost doing it this was was less than AU$200 each, as opposed to more than AU$500 for a direct flight to Beijing or one re-routed through HK.

 

We got to KL around 8.30pm and we had to hang around in the airport until our flight to Tianjin at 1.00am!  When they finally turned out the lights on that flight it was after 2.00am.  I was so glad that I brought my eye mask on the plane as my overhead reading light was on all night and there was no way to turn it off as the switch was broken.  Luckily Paul scored a spare pair of seats down the back of the plane so we got to stretch out on two seats each.  I ended up sleeping quite well thanks to the extra room but I don't think that Paul slept much at all.

 

We finally landed in Tianjin around 7.20am.  When we finally cleared immigration in China we were so relieved - no one had asked if we had an onward ticket.  All that worrying for nothing!  Still, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry - we still have the fake ticket up our sleeve in case we need it later.  Tianjin is still an hour or so away from Beijing.  We had to wait around in the airport until 10.00am for a bus to Beijing.  The bus ride was about 2.5 hours. 

 

When we got to Beijing we had to take our bags on the subway to get to the neighbourhood where we were staying (thankfully we had booked a few nights accommodation via hostelworld.com otherwise we would have been too tired to try to find something).  When we got out of the subway we got lost trying to find our way into the hutong neighbourhood where the hostel was and we ended up walking around in circles for over an hour being followed by these cyclo drivers who kept telling us that our hostel was still miles and miles away and why didn't we just let them drive us there for 30 yuan?  After all the effort we went to to get there on the cheap I wasn't going to cave in at the last minute and pay a ridiculous amount to go somewhere that was probably just around the corner if you knew which way to go!  Paul was feeling a bit tired and he had packed so much stuff that he had three bags to carry.  Also it was the middle of the day and it was over 30 degrees in the shade. 

 

I told Paul that we couldn't go on a cyclo unless he paid for both of us.  I knew that he wouldn't want to do that.  However, he kept saying he had to rest.  Eventually, I left him on the side of the road and told him I would go find the hostel, check in and then come back and help him carry his stuff.  By the time I found the hostel (after asking about a dozen people with my excellent miming and the help of the address written in characters) it was ages later.  I thought that Paul would probably be cooked sitting on the side of the road.  I was so hot I was just getting changed and was about to go back and get him when I heard a knock on the door.  It was Paul!  He had managed to find the place without a map or an address (and I think he did it quicker than I did with both seeing as he probably rested for a while and turned up less than 10 minutes after me).

 

We were so relieved when we finally found the hostel and could have a shower and go to sleep.  We were so exhausted we went to sleep straight away and only went out to get dinner and some bottles of water.

 

Today we were meant to go the Mongolian embassy and get our visas but we got up a bit too late so now we have to go tomorrow.  Instead we went and checked out Tiananmen Square and the area around it (Tiananmen Square is about 10 minutes walk from our hostel). We were too hot to line up to go visit Mao in his mausoleum (if indeed he is still there - still not sure about this as our LP is a little old), but since we saw Uncle Ho a few months ago we didn't feel like we were missing much.  Surely one dead but exceedingly well preserved communist leader is enough for one lifetime?